WHEN, AND WHEN NOT, TO DRINK BEER

Greetings,

Is very important that you know when and when not to drink beer.

You should drink beer when you want a beer.
You should drink a beer when there is one in front of you.
(Unless you have already had five or six earlier in the last hour.)
You should drink a beer when someone buys a round.
When the menu calls for it, you should drink beer with your meal.
Despite what science tells us, you should drink beer on a hot summer day when you are thirsty.
(Science says it dehydrates you, I say not if you drink enough of them.)
You should drink beer to celebrate a special occasion.

You should not drink beer when you've had too many.

How do you tell when you've had too many?

When you can convince yourself that you're the smartest person in the pub, the most attractive person in the pub, in fact the very best person there is in the pub.

Cheers!
Peter LaFrance

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TOO MANY BEERS SO LITTLE TIME…

Greetings,

There are over 2,000 breweries in operation in the United States of America and Canada. There are over 10,000 brands of beer and ale sold in that market. This accounts for breweries that produce one and two barrel batches and the Golden, CO and St. Louis, Mo breweries.

Now let’s assume that 50% of these breweries are brewpubs, either independent or chain members which leaves us with just 1,000 breweries and 5,000 brands of beer.

For the sake of semi-accuracy let’s also decide that 50% of these breweries are in very limited (one, maybe two states) markets, leaving 500 breweries marketing 2,500 brands of beer.

And finally, since we included the big boys in the initial numbers let’s take half of those brands of beer and place them in the available-nationwide cooler, and the other one thousand five hundred brands in the craft-brew cooler.

Finally, let’s say that a particular market has three major distributors supplying local retailers. One wholesaler is an Anheuser-Busch distributor, who carries the A-B “family of beers” and local “micros” by special arrangement. The second distributor supplies the “package store” or “off premises” market with the lowest cost canned and bottled beers. The third wholesaler specializes in high-end (super/ultra premium) brands to on-premises retailers and restaurants. These three will probably be able to handle one hundred to two hundred brands each. This results in the consumer faced with off-premises (package store) selections of over 100 brands in the cold box. It means that most restaurants, bars, taverns, inns and pubs can offer close to fifty brands of beer in bottle or draft.

What does this mean to the average beer drinker?

When faced with more than fifty brands of beer the average consumer will either opt for one of the heavily advertised brands of premium beer or will call for a locally brewed product. So many brands and styles are confusing and drives consumers to chose “comfortable” products that either evoke memories or traditions or answer a perceived lifestyle need as offered my heavily advertised products.

So many beers and so little time may be a short lived (well two generation long) beer lover’s paradise…

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

 All contents (c) Peter LaFrance

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This web site has been updated as recently as 28 April 2008